Monday, October 09, 2006

Playtime, it's about time!

Sometime a study gets published and you just have to say; duh, no kidding!

Like this one that I picked up via Google news earlier today: "Lots of free play will do good to children develop, says new study."

The report advocates promotion of free play as an essential part of childhood, avoidance as far as possible of television and computer games, which are passive entertainment, and active involvement of parents in their children's daily activities like spending time together and talking and listening to them rather than giving them loads of extracurricular activities.

The report recalls several studies, which emphasize that unstructured play benefits children, especially in making them creative, in discovering their own passions and in developing instincts for problem solving.

I would not restrict the benefits to children. Or better yet, reword the study to include children of all ages. But that may be just me. Peter Pan after all, is one of my heroes. I don't want to grow up.